Tag: yahoo

Marc Andreessen wrote a post on the impact to Silicon Valley if Microsoft and Yahoo buyout happens. I believe that this massive war is changing the landscape but in a positive way. This tech war becomes a catalyst the urgency is now. Marc has experience living the last war when he was a Netscape. Some might have forgot but the Microsoft assault on Netscape actually validated the market and created the wave and bubble of Web 1.0.

What Marc is trying to say is that this war might actually propel Web 2.0 up in a big way. Nice post Marc – it’s a must read – inside baseball – post.

I agree with his post that it will be a net positive in that other companies will have to ‘shore up’ their positions. I like how he put it..Marc says “if the Microsoft/Yahoo deal does go through, those same companies in many cases will be looking down a very scary double-barreled shotgun of an ascendant Google and an armored-up Microsoft”.

As I mentioned in my previous posts, entrepreneurs and big companies have to understand the mentality in a war time venture. If a business big or small gets caught in the battle during wartime, they need to be a supplier or arms dealer.

Here are a few strategies for business during tech war time: 1) be a supplier or arm dealer, 2) build value and cash flow positive and stay out of the way – bunker away, 3) pick a side and join their mission.

Google’s blog post, by Google Senior Vice President David Drummond, asks whether Microsoft could “now attempt to exert the same sort of inappropriate and illegal influence over the Internet that it did with the PC.” It accuses Microsoft, which has been targeted by antitrust regulators in the U.S. and Europe for years, of “frequently seeking to establish proprietary monopolies — and then leveraging its dominance into new, adjacent markets.”

This blog post by Google is a complete smoke screen. It is clearly a knee jerk reaction to Microsoft’s sneak attack into Silicon Valley last week. I’m sure right now Google executives are jamming on a counter attack. They have to – Microsoft just invaded Sunnyvale. Word inside Google right now – ‘calling all arms’.

As an entrepreneur you have to understand your environment, an no better time than now. As big businesses try to figure out their place in this war so do startups. That brings me to business models of WAR.

What do startups need to do – be a supplier of something. Something of value and need in wartime. Picks, shovels, food, shelter, arms, hostages,,.etc – figure it out because the WAR is on.

As John Markoff wrote today on Silicon Valley’s venture view…“There is a sense here among investors that Microsoft, as a more effective counterweight to Google, might actually serve to spur innovation in the Valley. “When Microsoft was in the ascendancy, there were whole areas of investment that were of less interest to investors,” said William R. Hearst III, an affiliated partner with the venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers. “Now you could enter a new area and people will think that maybe one of the two colossuses will be interested in acquiring your start-up.”

Entrepreneurs beware Microsoft buying Yahoo could shut down the tech startup scene. It could send the startup climate back to 2001 levels – nuclear winter shut down. I lived through 2001-2004. It was ugly.

Efficiency for Microsoft means leverage with suppliers. Translation: Startups are suppliers and Microsoft just became Walmart. This could have a chilling effect on the VC and tech investment community. This new industry structure puts even more of an emphasis on ‘hits’ or category specific deals. If the Venture Capitalists are confused today can you imaging what they will do going forward. This could get ugly.

Advice for Technology Startups and VCs: Understand where your company is in the pecking order in this war. If you’re not an arms dealer then you might want to rethink your strategy.

Joe Nocera of the New York Times writes that Microsoft is really a tired competitor. Not sure I agree that Microsoft doesn’t have the weaponry – under the right battle plan I think that they can compete and surpass Google. What I am sure of is that Microsoft will not “kill” Google. Nevertheless, Google isn’t Netscape.

Although there are many differences between Google and Netscape, the big difference is that Google is a multifaceted cash producing machine and Netscape was a one trick poney – the browser. Netscape was an easy target for Microsoft at that time. Today, Microsoft is fighting a different competitor. Google has great cash flow and control of the most coveted market – online advertising. This fight for Microsoft is to the death. Microsoft is the underdog not Google. A case can be made that Microsoft is the Netscape and Google the old Microsoft – the tables are turned. It’s going to get bloody.

As the president ial elec tions (can use those political keywords because of a Techmeme flaw) is down to two person races, the Internet battle has been waged. WAR! It’s official. It’s now a two company race: Google and Microsoft.

Last year Jerry Yang took over as ‘Captain’ Yahoo but their ship is stalled. Where are those new ‘sails’ to capture the new winds that are clearly blowing Google and Facebook’s way? Yahoo needs to change the game. Where’s the competive strategy? Where the “Eye of the Tiger” attitude?

Yahoo needs new products and fast. Jerry Yang says they are focused on investments on new initiatives. As Yang’s vow to keep spending on some initiatives indicates, Yahoo’s hope remains coming up with new services that catch people’s imagination as Google, MySpace (NWS), Facebook, and other sites have.

Silver Lining in new CTO hire: One promising sign from their new hire, Ari Balogh, is that he’s an infrastructure guy. He knows how to deal with scale and product rollouts that are managed service based. What does this mean? Yahoo could develop (fast) a significant position against both Google and Microsoft Live if Ari Balogh and team can integrate services and leverage user data for new products – a kind of “Mega Mashup” product strategy. The portal model is dying and advertisers are voting.

Also look for possible Data as a Service product set. Yahoo has so many possibilities but they need to pick a few and go with it. Yahoo has all the ‘raw materials’ and the audience to roll out ‘instant’ killer products.

For Yahoo to succeed it’s all about competitive strategy. Can’t wait to see how they execute their plan.

3) Port all your products to be web 2.0 enabled including social networking environments and data portability.

These three things can propell Yahoo to the front of the line in term of being competitive while delivering user value.

My prediction: Yahoo will join OpenSocial. By joining OpenSocial Yahoo can take advantage of their huge subscribe base, lead the open data movement, and leverage the user behavior trend in social networking and widgets.